Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Monday that if Pakistan continues to violate the ceasefire agreement, India would have no option but to respond with force.

Addressing a state police function here, he said, “In case Pakistan doesn’t respect the ceasefire agreement and continues to violate it, then New Delhi should look for other options... If they (Pakistani troops) violate ceasefire and continue attacks on us, we won’t tolerate it.”

Abdullah said Pakistani forces have been continuously targeting villages in Samba, R S Pura and Akhnoor. “It has made the local people leave their homes, abandon agricultural activities and flee to safer places,” he said.

“Obviously, this cannot be a one-sided affair. It cannot be a situation where we are at the receiving end and no response is given,” he said.

Stating that he would ask the Centre to take up the issuewith Pakistan, he said, “Tell them that the answer to shelling cannot be given by words. We do not want to retaliate with the bullet for the larger interests of the civilians living near the LoC and IB, but that does not mean that the answer to the bullet is not the bullet.”

He added that the “forces behind creating tension on the border... will not be allowed to succeed”.

Stating that India and Pakistan had worked out a mechanism “whereby the DGMOs of the two countries would meet and find ways to deescalate tension on the LoC and IB”, Abdullah said, “I believe that is an option that needs to be exercised, failing which the Government of India will have to look at responding to the ceasefire violation.”

On Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s statement seeking US intervention in resolving the Kashmir issue, he said, “He is guilty of playing to his home audience as he knows that India won’t accept any sort of foreign intervention.”

This is the second time in the last three days that Abdullah has expressed concern over the ceasefire violations on the LoC and IB.